Light Demon
by Andy Depp Ackles
Summary: Max and Alec are thrown into a nightmarish world. They are forced to deal with disturbing creatures and horrific realities. Their relationship is reavaluated when they realise that the only people they can trust are one another.
1. The dark road ahead

Light Demon

DISCLAIMER: Don't own Dark Angel T_T Don't own Silent Hill (Don't really want to)

A/N: This is homage to the scariest play station game I have ever played and the most disturbing movie I have ever watched combined with my favorite series and my two favorite characters off all time.

Chapter 1 -The dark road ahead

Max stopped in her tracks as she heard a strange, eerie noise coming from the higher level of the building. Her pulse sped up as she thought of the danger that the person she was looking for might be in. Then Max heard the siren. The grey light that streamed in from the windows and the doorway disappeared as darkness replaced it. Max knew that she only had moments to find Alec before the walking nightmares would find her and she would be all alone as she tried to escape the very things that made a not so proverbial bump in the night. As Max ran to the stairs as fast as her shaking legs would take her she resisted the urge to hide in the nearest cupboard and curl up into a ball of fright.

…...

Max walked through the entrance of Jam Pony with a determined expression on her face. She had hoped that normal wouldn't catch her but-

"Late again Missy Miss! It's a wonder why you still work here!" Normal called after Max as she walked straight past him without a second glance.

"It is a wonder." Max muttered under her breath. Just before she got to her locker her pager began to flash with Logan's number. Max looked down and sighed. Just when she was looking forward to a normal day's work…

Alec put down the phone just as Max pushed him out of the way to get to it. He glared at her but she seemed to be oblivious to the death-rays coming from his eyes. Max had ruined his reputation with quite a few of his clients already and the new one that he had just been talking to was highly temperamental when it came to manners. He was grateful that he had ended that call when he did otherwise Max would've ended it for him. Alec didn't bother waiting for an apology. He walked to his locker and then went to get his first package for the day. Just before he picked it up Max pulled him by the arm towards a quieter area.

"What?" Alec asked, getting out of her grip. He turned to look at her but instead of the tolerating expression she usually had when she spoke to him, she had a stressed one. Alec's expression immediately mirrored hers, all signs of playful irritation disappearing.

"I need your help with something." She almost whispered.

Alec couldn't help the worry her voice stirred within him. "Sure Max. What's wrong?" He asked in the same tone as her.

"Logan paged me so I phoned him back." Max started, her face became even more worried. "When I got through there was static on the other line and Logan begged me to come to Silent hill…"Max ended her sentence with a confused frown.

"Silent hill? What's that?" Alec eyebrows rose.

"I don't know, but Logan sounded…scared." Max shook her head inconceivably.

"What do you want to do?" Alec asked, hoping that Max wasn't going to live up to his expectations.

"I need to find him."

Alec had expected as much. He shook his head at her. He knew he didn't have much of a chance of persuading her otherwise but he could try. "No, Max. Bad idea."

"I have to!" Max frowned.

"You don't know where he is, you don't know who he's with, you don't know what he's doing there and **you don't have a plan**."

"I can't just leave him there! I have to try!" Max ground her teeth together. She was more than a little frustrated with her predicament. And not to mention worried out of her mind!

"You don't even know where to start looking."

"I can start by finding out where the hell that town is."

"Then what?" Alec tried to let his tone tell Max that she was being illogical.

"That's why I need you." Max looked at the floor for a moment before looking Alec in the eye again. She hated asking him for anything but right now she had to swallow her pride. "I need your car." She admitted.

"My car?" Alec asked with incredulity.

"Yeah."

He began to shake his head slowly. "I sold it a month ago Max."

Max closed her eyes in frustration. "Great."

"Why do you need my car anyway?" Alec asked.

"My bike got busted up by the sector cops again. It's at the impound and it's too damaged to get it out without paying for its release." Max said impatiently.

"Do you even know where this place is?" Alec asked, crossing his arms.

"I'll ask around. I'm pretty sure it's towards the North West."

Alec didn't like the worry on Max's face. He made the split decision to support her on her crazy mission as he knew he wouldn't be able to talk her out of it.

"Listen, you find out where this place is-I'll get a car." Alec said calmly.

Max smiled slightly at him. "Thanks." She said feeling a little better.

"Meet me back here around lunchtime." Alec said.

Max nodded and turned to walk away, towards OC. She hoped that she would be able to tell her where this place was.

At 1 o'clock Max walked towards Alec who was getting his jacket out of his locker. She held a map in her hand and she noticed that Alec had a set of car keys in his.

"You find out where it is?" Alec asked, putting his jacket on.

"Yep. Got a map just incase. Did you get a car?"

Alec smirked. "Got it off some gangster guys."

Max held out her hand and Alec dropped the keys into it. He knew that she would want to drive anyway.

"Thanks again, Alec." Max smiled a small, genuine smile.

Alec couldn't help but get the feeling that he wasn't invited along for the ride.

Max turned to walk and Alec followed close behind. She turned suddenly to give him a confused look.

Alec couldn't help but smirk again.

"Where're you goin'?" Max cocked an eyebrow.

"Do you honestly think I'm gonna let you go by yourself and have all the fun?"

"Uh, yeah I do." Max nodded.

"No ways." Alec walked past Max in the direction of the Hummer type vehicle.

Max grabbed his arm again. "I'll do this alone. It could be dangerous Alec."

Alec pulled his arm away. "Exactly. And you think I'd let you go by yourself with no backup?"

Max crossed her arms defiantly.

"This isn't negotiable." Alec let Max see the seriousness in his eyes and he saw her sigh in defeat.

Max walked past Alec and they both left Jam Pony. Once they got to the car Max was grateful that it looked incredibly sturdy (and not to mention brand new). The journey would take them the rest of the afternoon and half the night.

Max and Alec drove in silence as they exited Seattle; the already rainy day became even darker as heavy thunder clouds rolled in. Max wasn't fazed. She was an excellent driver -rainy, slippery roads didn't intimidate her. She glanced at Alec when she was sure he wasn't looking. She wondered why he had even bothered to help her in the first place. He usually did things that had something in it for him at the end and Max couldn't find one single thing that would benefit his life from this trip. They drove until dusk, having to get a gas refill and maybe some food from a nearby store. Alec's silence was beginning to worry Max. They eventually found a scarcely populated town with a rundown gas station and a store where they could get some snacks. Max and Alec got out of the car. Max decided to voice her concern. "Are you alright?" She asked Alec hesitantly as he began to fill the car with gas.

"Yeah." Alec replied unconvincingly. "Why?"

"You seem quiet." Max stated.

"I just don't have a good feeling about this."

"What do you mean?" Max asked, knowing full well what he meant. She had been feeling the exact same thing.

"I just feel it in my gut and I've learned to trust my instincts."

Max swallowed and didn't reply. She felt it too. It only made her more anxious to get to Logan. What if he was in serious trouble?"

Alec finished refilling the tank and then they both went to get some food. As they walked into the shop the locals began to stare uncomfortably at them. Max looked up at Alec's face. He only cocked an eyebrow as if to say 'I don't know.'

They left the shop a few minutes later. Max had been anxious to get back on the road. Alec was slightly irritated that the shop hadn't had any of his favorite snacks. As they got into the car, a police officer stepped up next to Max's window and tapped on the glass. Max and Alec tensed as all of their experiences with cops had taught them to. Max opened her window halfway and smiled politely at the woman.

"What's the prob'm officer?" She asked innocently. Alec mirrored Max's polite smile.

"Just wonderin' where you folks're headed?" The officer looked at Max through tinted glasses.

"Out of town. We just needed to get away from it all."

"You wouldn't perhaps be headin' to Silent Hill now would you?"

"No." Max shook her head, not letting the cop have any information.

"Good." She nodded and smiled.

"Why? What's wrong with this Silent Hill place?" Max asked nonchalantly.

"Let's just say you wouldn't want to be caught there during nightfall."

Max and Alec swallowed.

"Now you folks have a safe journey." The policewoman smiled and walked away.

Max did her window up and looked over at Alec. They shared a slightly wide-eyed look. As Max drove away, she and Alec both worried about what this was all about. Hours later Alec felt drowsy as he stared at the unchanging black road in front of him. The rain had subsided into a light drizzle. He looked sleepily at Max. He noticed how beautiful and vulnerable she looked when she was worried. He hated to see her worry though. He hoped that they would soon figure this mess out so that those two seemingly permanent lines between her eyebrows would disappear. He looked away and leaned his head on his window. Soon he was asleep.

Max looked over at Alec's sleeping form and smiled. She was eternally grateful for her shark DNA at that moment because without it she was sure to fall asleep at the wheel.

Max would never admit it but she felt so much safer in this huge car with Alec riding shotgun. Ever since she had gotten that phone call from Logan she had felt an uneasy feeling in her stomach. As Max stared at the unending, dark road in front of her and listened to Alec's silent snores as he slept with his head leaning against the window, she wondered if White and his men had something to do with this.

Suddenly Alec's phone began to ring, startling him awake. He took it out of his pocket and blinked his sleep-clouded eyes so that he could believe exactly what he was seeing. Logan's number flashed on the screen.

"It's Logan." Alec said disbelievingly.

Max grabbed the phone and flipped it open.

"Hello? Logan?" Max said anxiously.

"Max? Why do you have Alec's phone?" Logan asked sounding relieved.

"What do you mean?"

"I've been trying to get hold of you the whole day."

Max glanced down at her pager. It had died somehow. "I phoned you and you told me to find you in Silent Hill." Max was confused.

Alec sat bolt upright, listening to Max's conversation. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a worn out sign that read: Welcome To Silent Hill. His stomach made a sickening flip as he realized that it was all a trap. He knew deep down that it was already too late but Alec hoped that there was a chance of turning back. "Max, stop the car!" He shouted.

Max tried to listen to Logan through Alec's shouting.

"I didn't tell you that!"

"We need to turn around now!"

"Get out of there Max, Silent Hill isn't a good place!"

"Max!"

Max tried to make sense of what both the men were telling her. She briefly lost focus on the road. Then she caught sight of a disfigured shape standing in the middle of the pitch-black lane in front of them. Alec also saw it as Max swerved the vehicle as much as possible to miss the shape. Then the overgrown car made a slightly sickening skidding noise and flipped over in the air.

In the brief moments before the car landed upside down on the road, Max thought only one thought: _too late_.

A/N: This was my first attempt at writing horror. I just felt like Malec would be great together in a situation with scary, disturbing things and I realized that hardly any people write DA with horror storylines. This took me a few hours to write (spread over two days). My favorite genre is Romance but I would say Horror is close to second best for me. Tell me if you guys think it's worth carrying on.


	2. The Otherworld

Light Demon

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Dark Angel or any part of the Silent Hill franchise

A/N: So I started out by writing this chapter to see how it would go and it ended up being Alec's POV. So that's why I decided to write another chapter for Max and waited until I was finished that one so that I could upload them together. If the monsters sound somewhat farfetched don't blame me. I did some research and looked up exactly what all the monsters in Silent Hill actually look like and sound like and how they behave.

Chapter 2 -The Otherworld

Alec felt a dull pain spread down the side of his face. He tried to remember what had just happened as he pried his eyes open and forced them to focus. The first things he saw were pieces of shattered glass right in front of his eyes. Everything came flooding back to him then. He remembered that the car had flipped over and then there was just emptiness. And pain.

Alec tried to reach up to feel his face and realized that he was upside down -his seatbelt stuck in its clasp as the car lay on its back. Alec tried to look around for Max. She wasn't in the car anymore and what was left of her door was pried open. Alec reached for the irritating seatbelt holder and broke it into pieces. He dropped head first onto the roof of the car.

He wondered where on Earth Max had wondered off to without him. Maybe she was dead set on going by herself after all. He winced as he thought the 'dead' part. What would he do if she was just plain dead? Alec twisted over so that he could bring himself upright. Jagged pieces of glass scratched at his hands as he pulled himself out of the mangled vehicle and onto the road. He stood up and looked around. It was probably morning. A heavy fog wouldn't let Alec's trained eyes see past ten yards in any direction. He strained his ears for a moment but he realized something strange. There was silence. He couldn't hear anything, not nature nor other cars, no people, no traffic. Not even the slightest of breezes could be heard rustling anything. Alec's ears began to ring with the emptiness. All he could hear was his own breathing and heart rate (which was beginning to quicken slightly). He focused on the task at hand -finding Max. Once he did that then maybe they could figure out what was going on and what that strange call from 'Logan' had meant. 'Who knows maybe she's had some luck already and figured out what this place is.' Alec thought as he began to walk away from the overturned vehicle.

He followed the dashes of white lines along the middle of the road until he came to a stop street, the fog not allowing him to see anything except the road and seemingly abandoned buildings on either side. It was a crossroads. He walked into the middle of the road and made a three-sixty to see all the possible directions that Max could've chosen. His gut told him to turn around right then and get back to the car. That it could still be salvageable in some way and then used to escape this eerie place but Alec's heart told him to go straight. That Max was in that direction.

As Alec continued ahead he heard a faint shuffle in the distance. It must've been half a mile away. Alec took off in a silent blur of a sprint to catch up to anything that might be literate or, hopefully, Max. Once he was around a hundred yards away from whoever it was Alec stopped and thought through what he was hearing. Whoever was making that noise was slowly approaching but Alec noticed that their footsteps were too dragged and slow. Too different to be an average person. Far too different to be Max's. Alec lost a bit of hope at his discovery but he was suddenly aware that he had no idea who or what was coming towards him. By then it was too late and Alec could make out a faint shape of a person walking towards him. He felt a short pang of relief until it disappeared with the revealed image in front of him. It was no person.

Alec couldn't describe what exactly it was he was seeing. Twenty yards away stood something that moved forward in an unnerving way. The 'person' had no face, no arms and nothing except a sickening pale skin that covered it completely. Large rib-like ridges circled it's abnormally large torso. That's when Alec noticed a large wound in the middle of it's chest. It was dripping something black -obviously not blood. Alec could smell that it had a sickeningly acidic quality to it. As the creature twisted and turned so that it could force itself forward, Alec backed away a few steps, shock and horror painting his face. "What happened to you?" Alec asked in a panicked voice, not really expecting any kind of answer.

The creature didn't react in any particular way to his question, only continuing to move menacingly forward. Then all of a sudden it stopped and jerked it's torso forward, sending a fountain of black acid spraying towards Alec. He turned just in time for it to miss his face and instead splatter all over his black leather jacket. The acid began to eat away the material of his jacket, viciously trying to get to his skin. Alec pulled it off and blurred so that he was suddenly behind the creature. He briefly wondered if the thing could have been created at Manticore as some kind of tortured, sick experiment. He placed his hands on its neck and shoulder and twisted them in opposite directions hoping to snap whatever mangled neck he could find. The skin of the creature was disgusting and slimy and to make matters worse there was no neck structure to break. Only a bunch of random tendons. The creature made a complete 180 and turned on Alec. He didn't like the fact that it's acid shooting chest was right in front of him so Alec kicked the creature away with as much force as possible making it fall back five yards. It twisted and turned to try and get up but without the use of it's arms it couldn't. Alec wasn't sure what to do.

He didn't have a gun on him and he couldn't break the thing's bones. Alec watched in amazed horror as it twisted itself once more and began to crawl and thrash towards him, not able to get up due to it's lack of frontal limbs. Alec turned to his right as other presences became known. There was a scrap yard to his left on the side of a steep hill and a chain link fence that surrounded it. As Alec looked through the wire holes all the way to the top of the hill he realized that there were many other creatures exactly the same as the one before making their way down, almost curiously, as if the noise had caught their attention. Alec knew that he didn't stand a chance against so many acid spewing atrocities. Instead, he went into flight mode and ran past the creature, as fast as his legs could carry him, away from the scrap yard. When he was a good half a mile away he stopped suddenly, only realizing then that Max could have come into contact with one of those creatures as well. A chilling tingle ran up Alec's spine at the thought. He hoped that she had just ignored those creatures and ran for her life. They couldn't have killed her, could they? There was no sign of a fight and Alec knew that Max wouldn't have gone down without one. Had they captured her? Probably not. Firstly they looked mentally, as well as physically retarded, yet still lethal if underestimated. No. He could somehow sense her presence pulling him forward, which was strange because even though they had always been attuned to one another, this was like an intensified bond. She was northwards. Alec could feel it. He could also smell faint traces of her scent in the air.

Alec continued to walk silently forward, trying not to draw anymore unwanted presences to him. As he reached the corner of the next road he realized that the fog had lifted slightly yet the sky had taken on a darker shade of grey. Alec looked around him. Tall buildings surrounded this road on either side. It looked like the main road if he wasn't mistaken. He walked over to the curb and looked at a map on a bus stop post. He didn't know why he hadn't thought of this before. The map showed all the roads in the town (nine to be exact) and sure enough he had just turned onto the main one. He memorized the map quickly incase he didn't get the chance to get to another. Up the road was a quickie mart of sorts. Alec decided it was probably a good idea to stock up on anything that Max might need if he ever found her. 'When you find her. **When **you find her.' Alec chanted, trying not to let the gloom of the haunted town get to him. He continued down the road that was scattered with abandoned cars. The cars were old. Clearly way older than pre-pulse. He absently wondered what had happened to this town. As Alec looked around at the abandoned buildings he noticed something in the air had changed. It was still foggy but it had also started to snow. Alec didn't feel any colder, even without his jacket. A piece of what looked like snow landed on his cheek. He wiped his finger over it only to realize that it wasn't cold and wet but it was dry. Alec looked at the dark grey smudge on his finger. It was ash. "What the- why's it snowing ash?" Alec wondered aloud. He looked around again. The road was being scattered with ash. "You know what, this is the least weird thing to happen so far so…" Alec shrugged, feeling better than he had a while ago. The sound of his voice making him feel less alone.

He walked until he came to the end of the road where he found the small supply shop. The door was previously chained up but it looked as if the chain had been cut off and broken into awhile ago. Alec felt less hopeful at the idea of finding anything useful but went inside nonetheless. He left the door open so that he would hear if anyone-or anything-might pass by and give him another surprise. As Alec scanned the rows of old grocery shelves he heard a distant giggle of a child. He snapped around so that he faced the doorway and ran out to see where it had come from. Alec looked in every direction, ears pricked to hear anything within a mile radius. He heard it again and turned to his left to see a little girl run down the road.

"Wait!" Alec called after her as she disappeared around the corner. He blurred after her knowing that he would catch up to her in a matter of seconds. As he turned the corner she was already halfway down the next road. He wondered how on earth she could be that fast. Then she disappeared down an alley. Alec was at the alley within a few seconds. When he turned, once again she was gone. He slowed as he walked down the stairs leading to another alleyway. Suddenly Alec's ears rang as the previously silent town atmosphere began to wail with a World War II siren. The sound startled Alec. He looked up at the sky as it began to turn black. The siren stopped, leaving Alec alone, silently, in the dark. And then to make matters worse it began to rain.

Alec looked up at the pitch black sky as drops of rain began to drop down on him. "_What's going on_?" Alec whispered to himself. He began to walk down the last few steps until he had to turn a corner again. He noticed an overturned wheelchair to his left, one rusty wheel spinning slowly. He continued down the alleyway and noticed something laid out on top of a dumpster. He went up to it and immediately smelt what it was before he saw what it was. A miner's costume filled with something bloody was laid out on the dumpster. As if it was specifically placed. Alec backed away a few steps as the fear that had been growing within him doubled. He hardly ever felt scared about anything but when he did there was a good reason for it. Like when White had planted that bomb attached to his brainstem. Or when he had been about to kill Max. Or when Zack had come back into Max's life making Alec only a spare part and no longer necessary to her. But this fear was different and it combined all of those types of fears. Firstly there was the fact that he was seemingly alone in a haunted town full of silence and the occasional monster and disappearing girl. That he could die from some wandering creature. Then he had no idea why he and Max were brought there, or more specifically why Max was, in the first place. Then there was the fact that Max was missing. That petrified Alec the most. As Alec stood looking at the bloody dumpster he wished that he had someone with him in this dark alley. Not that the dark had ever scared him before but being all-alone was disturbing. He longed for Max's backup. A fellow soldier to count on in the dark.

Alec was pulled from his thoughts with the sound of a chain link fence being disturbed.

He whirled around to see the little girl once again running away. Alec ran after her in the rain, slowed down by a maze of chain link fences. He reached a dead end but the girl was nowhere to be seen. Alec caught sight of something attached to a tall fence. Slowly and reluctantly Alec looked upwards at the dark figure. The all too familiar smell of blood making him alert. He gasped at the sight. A person that had been skinned alive was tied to the fence with more wire. Their head still wore a miner's toxic-waste-themed mask. Alec blinked, unable to move for a moment as the still-alive man's eyes made contact with his, tears brimming at the edges. He realized that the bloody display left on the dumpster was probably the mans skin and clothes. Alec could no longer hold in the fear that took control of his body. He immediately broke eye contact with the man, hoping that if he looked away it would somehow make it not real. Alec took a moment and then looked up again only to be equally horrified that it **was** real. Alec let his soldier mode take control and let all those years of Manticore training with gore and pain take over. He wouldn't get his emotions involved. Alec looked around for something to put the suffering man out of his misery with. Anything. As long as it didn't have to be his own hands. He found a long piece of metal to his right and picked it up. It was fairly sharp and pointed.

Alec was about to turn back to kill the man for good but then he heard something strange. He spun around to see a bunch of twisted pygmies moving towards him. Their faces also held no features like the one before but their faces were twisted in on themselves. They too had grayish skin however they had legs and arms. They made mangled yelps as they cornered Alec reaching out for him. But they moved slowly and Alec ran to his right where a bolted-up door gave him hope for escape. Without much difficulty Alec broke the door open and rushed in. Then he closed it shut and held it shut, trying to wedge it closed with the piece of metal in his hand. He managed to keep it wedged shut but the creatures banged and loosened the metal. Alec only had moments before they would break in. He looked around. He was in a dusty, old-fashioned bowling alley. Before he could even get his bearings he was knocked to the ground by something that smelled canine yet also bloody attacking him. He looked up to see a skinned dog viciously trying to get to his jugular. Alec held it away and snapped it's neck before it could do any real damage but before he had time to get up the grey children had broken in and were coming through the door and reaching for him again.

Alec tried to get to his feet but three or four of them had already pinned his legs down. He kicked to try to get rid of them but when a few fell down others took their places. Alec struggled, not sure exactly what they wanted with him, until they began to claw at his bare arms with their manacling fingers. Their hellish squeals making them sound like strangled cats. Alec let out a small yelp when one of them cut a deep line with a sharp blade into his bicep. His pained cry seemed to make them riled up, excited even and thirstier for blood and pain. Alec had had enough of this. No one was going to torture him, especially ugly midgets, without a fight. As the little creatures covered almost his entire body, Alec kicked out and a few went flying to the other side of the room.

"Get off!" Alec shouted, making them squeal more. He then freed one of his arms so that he could snap a few necks-if they had them. He reached up for the one that was basically wrapped around his own neck and picked it up by the throat and crushed his hand together with excessive force. Alec smiled as he heard it's neck break under the pressure of his hand. He let go of it so that he could deal with the ones 'working' on his right wrist but out of the corner of his eye he saw that the one that he had supposedly just 'killed' had come back for more, it's head completely dislocated.

Alec became more desperate as he realized that he was running out of ideas. They now completely covered every inch of his body, weighing him down only a little but still managing to keep him pinned. Alec tried to turn over onto his stomach. He succeeded but was cruelly reminded that that wouldn't help much as they cut into his back with something. He hissed in pain as he clawed at the ground in front of him to pull himself forward and away from the twisted children. Suddenly the tone of their squeals changed and they loosened their grip on him. Alec turned as much as he could to see that they were backing away as if they were being burned by something. They slowly backed away as Alec realized that it was getting lighter outside. Pieces of them began to disappear as if incinerated by the light. He turned and sat up then, able to move easily without them pulling him down. He stood up quickly just incase something else happened and he would have to rely on his speed to escape again. He slowly backed away as the creatures disappeared completely. Alec looked around the once nightmarish room. It looked perfectly sane now, just old and dusty. An old song began to play on an old jukebox in the corner of the room. Alec frowned and darted his eyes around the room. It was barren.

The old country song rang out in all directions of the bowling alley. Alec suddenly felt claustrophobic and needed to get out of there. He looked around for an alternative exit than the way he had just come. He really didn't want to pass by the man on the chain link fence again (if he was still there). Alec saw light streaming in from the front doors of the bowling alley. He ran towards them and pried them open with his newly claimed weapon. As Alec stepped out into a road that he had not seen before he searched around for a street name. He gripped the long piece of metal tightly in his right hand incase there were any more surprises. He found another bus stop post and looked at the map again. He was on the fifth road (one ahead of the main road). There was dead silence again as thick fog shrouded the town in all directions. Alec's mind was suddenly focused on one goal: he needed to find Max.

A/N: Please R&R. Next chapter follows straight after this.


	3. Messages

Light Demon

DISCLAIMER: Don't own DA. Don't own Silent Hill.

A/N: Now this is where Max was the entire time:

Chapter 3 -Messages

Max opened her eyes. As her surroundings came into focus and her thoughts cleared she sat up suddenly. She looked around her. She didn't see Alec or the car that they had crashed in any direction. That was the last thing she could clearly remember. Getting the phone call from Logan and then seeing the figure in the middle of the road and then crashing. Max tried to remember what the figure looked like but even to her advanced eyes the memory was blurry. A tight knot formed in her stomach as she realized that she had been moved from the car. Then she relaxed as she realized that it was probably Alec who had moved her from the car. As she stood up from the sidewalk that she had been laid across she wondered why Alec had chosen such a strange place to leave her. And why had he left her? Why hadn't he just woken her up?

Max walked into the middle of the road. A heavy fog blocked her vision in every direction. Max reached up to feel the tender spot on her shoulder that had obviously been injured during the crash. She made a 360 in the middle of the road. She couldn't hear anything. The town looked beyond deserted. She felt slightly curious to carry on down the road but was conflicted between staying and waiting for Alec to return or going to explore on her own. She was briefly aware of the danger that the town presented. But her curiosity as to why she had been tricked into coming here overruled her fear. As she headed in the direction of the corner of the street she caught sight of a map that was on a bus stop post. She walked over to it to find out where the hell she was. In total there were nine streets.

She and Alec had crashed just before street number one. Max was now on street number eight. She wondered why Alec had carried her such a long way away from the car. Max turned to look back at the place where she had woken up. What if Alec had gone to get something to phone with (Max presumed that his cell phone had been smashed in the accident). She decided to head back to the spot and only walk up and down the immediate road. If Alec was in a mile radius she would be able to hear him. Max walked along the sidewalk. There were a few family businesses -long closed- that were old and dusty on the inside. Some shops were completely boarded up and the windows were blackened out.

Max began to wring her hands when half an hour passed and Alec was nowhere to be seen. Her panic grew when she saw something in the corner of her eye appear and then disappear. Max spun her head around to see what it was. She doubted it was Alec. She knew he was immature and playful at times but hide and seek in an abandoned town was not on his to-do-list. She followed in the direction of the disappearing figure. She had to turn a corner and there on her left was a house -its front door the only one that was open and still slightly swinging on its hinges. Max walked up the front steps silently, onto the front porch. The windows were boarded up and the front yard was devoid of all greenery. Max swallowed hard as she entered. A sharp, piercing laugh came from Max's left. She spun around suddenly and briefly caught a glimpse of a shadow on the dirty wall of the house's living room. And then it was gone. Max spun around again as another shrill of laughter came from behind her. Once again the shadow was just out of her peripheral vision. She wondered how something could move so fast. So fast that her advanced eyesight couldn't even keep up with it. Max walked further into the house.

A door was open a few feet in front of her revealing the back yard. Max heard a rustling noise coming from the garden. Maybe Alec had seen her running towards the house? Doubtful. He would have called after her. Max slowly approached the yard.

"Hello?" She called out hesitantly. The rustling stopped. As Max reached the doorway she cautiously stepped outside and looked around. A dog kennel sat alone in the back right corner of the yard. Before Max had time to prepare herself she was knocked to the ground, the smell of rotting flesh filled her nose and she fought the urge to gag. Max flipped up onto her feet again quickly but was attacked from the other side and knocked back down. There were three rabid dogs that were attempting to eat her alive. Max kicked one away making it whine in pain. Max reached up and closed her hand around another one's neck. Its rotting flesh made Max's hand slip slightly but once she had a decent grip she crushed her fingers together, her other arm keeping the third dog away from her jugular. The first dog had recovered from Max's blow and was now chewing on her leg, ripping her jeans slightly. Max pulled her leg away from it and kicked it in the head with as much force as she could manage. It fell to the ground undoubtedly due to a smashed skull.

The last dog left had managed to take advantage of Max's distraction and bit into the side of her neck, just missing a very vital artery. Max let out a small shriek of pain and tried to rip the jaw of the dog away from her flesh. This time she used both hands to snap it's neck. Suddenly aware that more could be on the way Max flipped up onto her feet and looked around vigilantly. She studied the bodies of the dogs lying on the floor. They were definitely not normal rabid, vicious dogs. Their skin and fur was ripped and torn away in places and they looked like they were rotting. Besides the obvious physical differences their aggression seemed more like possession. Rabies possibly but Max couldn't see any foam coming from their mouths. A chill ran up Max's spine. There was something definitely not right about this town.

Max had silently made her way back to the spot where Alec had left her, praying that he was waiting for her there. She really didn't want to be alone again if another pack of rabid dogs attacked. As she rounded the corner her heart sank with the sight of the desolate road. No people, no hustle and bustle, no birds chirping, no life. _No Alec._ Only fog. Max slowly walked over to the exact spot where she had awoken, absently checking the wound the dog had made.

A few drops of blood trickled down the side of her neck.

As she looked down at the sidewalk she noticed something lying on the ground. Her eyebrows knit together as she looked at the tattered piece of paper. 'Was that there before? No. I wouldn't have missed it. Could the wind have blown it from down the street? Impossible. There is no wind, not even a breeze. Then how… Maybe Alec left it here when I went into that house. But I was only gone for a few minutes. Surely he's not that impatient? Only one way to find out.' Max bent down to pick the piece of paper up off the ground. She studied it. A message was scrawled in black:

_Where do you willingly go to be tortured and hope that you'll learn from it?  
__A bell rings beckoning to the infants to learn more about a fake world.  
__In the darkest of hours nightmares threaten to break into reality.  
__Find me._

Max scrunched her face up in confusion. Now what the hell was this about? Who wrote it and why were the two main questions circulating her already weary brain. She knew one thing for certain: there was someone else there besides Alec. An unnerving thought snuck into Max's head. What if Alec hadn't been the one to take her from the car? It was a plausible question. If he had, he wouldn't have placed her on the sidewalk of a road and left her there.

The more Max thought about it, the more certain she was that it was the truth. Someone else was in this seemingly deserted town obviously. Besides mutant dogs or disappearing-laughing-shadows. Someone wanted her to figure this riddle out. Maybe it would give her some answers? Max studied the note again. So it was telling her to figure out a place in the town? Max's mind broke the riddle up and analyzed each section within three seconds. She didn't understand the last part but the first part lead to the town school and if she remembered the map of the town correctly it would be just one road up. Max shoved the piece of paper into her jeans pocket and headed in the direction of the school.

Once she turned onto the road she focused her eyesight to try and make out how far along the road the school was. She noticed that the fog had become less dense and was lifting but the sky had darkened slightly. Max saw a large building seventy yards away to the left. Her eyesight zoomed in to see a sign which read: Midwich Elementary School. Max silently approached, looking around incase anyone was watching her. Just as Max reached the entrance a flake of what appeared to be snow landed on her jacket collar, catching her attention.

Max turned around to look up into the sky. Little pieces of a substance darker than snow fell all around her and all along the street. It wasn't cold or the time of year for snow. Max held out her hand to catch a piece of whatever it was. It wasn't cold or wet. Max crushed it in between her fingers and looked again to find a dark grey smudge left in its place. Ash? Max raised a single eyebrow but turned around to enter the building instead of asking more unanswerable questions. Maybe whoever had called her to this town was in this school. If she was going to get answers it would be here. The front door was already open so Max pushed it open and stepped into a long, wooden corridor. Max quietly walked along the corridor, passing countless classrooms and hallways, not sure exactly where to be looking for whatever it was she was supposed to find.

Suddenly a door slammed shut in the corridor up ahead of her. Max blurred silently towards the door and tried to open it but it was stuck. She used her good shoulder (the one that wasn't injured in the accident) to push the door open. When it swung open and revealed a row of dilapidated toilet cubicles Max realized that it was the girl's bathroom, or what used to be. All the cubicle doors were closed in the badly lit room. Max heard someone sniffling in the last cubicle furthest away from her. A young girl if she wasn't mistaken. Max walked slowly towards the end cubicle.

"Hello?" Max said as the girl continued to weep. "It's alright I won't hurt you." Max was now standing outside of the end cubicle, wondering whether or not to open the door.

"Why don't you come outta there? Whad'ja say? I'll take you back to your parents." Max waited as the weeping quieted and then disappeared altogether. Max's patience was used up. She slowly pushed the door open to reveal dark cubicle. Max froze. There was no little girl. It was something else. Someone else. They were dead obviously because Max heard no pulse coming from the dark form in front of her. But what she saw she couldn't quite understand. It was a full grown man twisted backwards and tied up into a strange position with barbed wire. The wire seemed almost grown into his neck already. That little detail making Max wonder the most about. He would have had to be alive when they tied him up like this for the skin to grow over. His neck and his feet were tied up together, the back of his heels almost touching his head. Other strands of wire surrounded the man, crisscrossing in all directions, holding him up in a strange position. His bare chest faced Max as his head was pulled backwards.

Max realized that there was a large arrow drawn on the wall pointing down at what appeared to be the man's open mouth. She knew what it meant. 'What kind of sicko…' Max's thoughts trailed off as she stepped into the cubicle, determination taking over. She leaned towards the man and weaved her arm through the web of wires to get to his face. The closer that Max leaned, the more she felt like gagging at the smell. She scrunched up her face disgustedly as her fingers entered the man's open mouth. Max felt a small piece of paper and gripped the edges before pulling it out. Her arm made its way back through all the wires. Max pulled away from the horrific cubicle and went back towards the bathroom door before reading the note. Before Max could open the piece of paper she heard a man down the hall shout and she looked in time to see a man with a toxic-waste mask point at her and a few other men who surrounded him all look.

Max's brain went into overdrive as it logically sought out the best plan of action. Someone in the town had been cruel enough to do that to the man in the bathroom with her. Someone had tortured him alive. These men could have been the ones. They could have also made those dogs into rabid beasts. Max knew from personal experience that people in power could be cruel. As the men ran towards her Max shut the bathroom door and locked it to buy herself some time to think. Should she kick their asses? The men banged on the door shouting at Max to open up or else. What if they were the only ones who could give her answers? The men had started to ram the door down with something. Why would they have lead her there in the first place? The doors hinges stood sturdy against the pressure, no doubt of good design. How did they know to use Logan as bait?

Outside of the door Max heard a frantic chirping of a bird fluttering around in a cage. Had they captured Alec? Suddenly the ramming stopped and Max heard the men's footsteps pounding down the corridor as they ran away and out of the school. Max didn't have long to think about it because suddenly a siren began to wail in the distance. An ominous sound that made Max think of the WWII bombings. Max looked at the note that she clutched in her right hand for the first time.

_You're not scared of the dark are you? _

Max looked around her as the natural light coming in from the windows turned darker and darker until there was no light left. The siren cut off. Max swallowed unconsciously. For the first time she felt fear skitter across her skin leaving goose bumps in its path. It had started to rain outside.

The pitter-patter calmed Max slightly as it reminded her of her apartment back in Seattle. The good feeling that the rain had brought on disappeared when Max heard a noise coming from the end cubicle. Max's eyes widened as she turned in the direction of the noise. Something moved along the ground, coming out of the cubicle. Max focused her eyesight on the object. It was the man. The DEAD man. Max froze. He was crawling along the ground in a horrible position, using his hands to gain ground. Max would've had pity for him still if it weren't for the look on his face. He wanted to get to her and his eyes relayed raw, vicious emotions. Max tried to unlock the bathroom door but it had become stuck from the men's attempts to ram it in. Max backed up and kicked it in on its hinges. She ran out into the hallway. It looked different. The wallpaper on the walls had been shredded away. Max looked up at the ceiling, the plaster was also rotting and bare concrete was the only thing holding the whole place together. The floors had a slightly wet look. The whole place looked singed and the smell of blood once again filled Max's nose.

Down the hall she could see a hoard of cockroach looking things the size of rats scuttle towards her at full speed. Max looked behind her again. The man was now in the doorway. She was blocked from both sides. There were simply too many of the large cockroaches to kill and Max didn't know exactly how dangerous they were. Whereas the crawling man was just one, Max didn't think she would have enough time to kill him before the insects had caught up to her. Max looked up to the ceiling. A pipe that stuck out looked sturdy enough to grab onto. Max jumped and took hold of it, securing her legs around it too. She twisted to the side in time to see the hoard of parasites cover the man as his screams were silenced by their chewing and chomping noises. Max waited until they had carried the remains of the man away down another hallway before she silently landed on her feet again. She ran down the corridor to the left of the bathroom and stopped halfway when she heard something coming up ahead. Max quickly pushed through the door to her left. It was the school's courtyard.

The rain felt good on Max's face, washing away the sweat that had accumulated from the suddenly humid atmosphere. Max walked towards the middle of the courtyard, wondering which direction would be the safest. The rain wasn't very cold but it was already soaking her clothes completely. Another strange noise came from the far right corner of the courtyard. Max focused her feline eyes in the dark to see what it was. A sewer grate was pushed to the side and something was emerging from the ground. Max's legs locked in place. Torn between options. She could either run and hopefully escape before meeting any more nightmares or she could fight. Max's eyes narrowed. Three short creatures had emerged from the sewer system. They had no heads and loosely resembled headless teddy bears. Huge claws hung on too-long arms at either side of each creature. More creatures emerged. They noticed Max's presence and began to walk towards her, making strange growls unlike anything that Max had ever heard before.

The first one was a few feet away. Max took a fighting stance and prepared for an attack. The creature maintained speed and walked closer still, reaching out with it's claws. Despite it's non-violent approach Max didn't take the time to give it the benefit of the doubt. She kicked it away with as much force as she had, sending it crashing into the others. There growls became more intense as they got up and even more emerged from the sewer. A loud bang sounded within the building towards the third floor behind Max. She whirled around to see what it was. As she squinted into the raining sky to try and get a better view of the higher level of the school the creatures had gained momentum and were already a yard away. Max turned but was too late as one had gripped her leg and another and another, knocking her down. Max kicked out and crawled away but what she didn't know was that most of the other creatures had fled back into the sewer to get away from the monster that stood in the back corner of the courtyard. Without looking back Max acted on plan A and ran towards the door across the courtyard. Something grabbed her ankle and Max landed head first on the concrete floor of the yard. Max's vision blurred as she tried to get up. Then it faded out as she fell unconscious.

The teddy bear creatures growled in fear and retreated back into the sewer system. The rain poured down on the tall man standing over Max. He slowly bent over, careful not to let the metal pyramid which encased his head bang against the ground as he grabbed her ankle with one hand. He turned towards the direction of the east courtyard door and began to walk towards it, dragging Max's limp body behind him. All of a sudden he let go and backed towards the east wall, stumbling as he looked into the sky. The rain had stopped. Pieces of the creatures flesh began to disintegrate as the sky lightened.

A few moments later the courtyard was completely dry, no signs of rain evident. A heavy fog settled giving the yard an eerie white glow. Max lay unconscious on the ground.

A/N: Please R&R. Tell me what you think about the storyline and how scared you got when you read this (if you got scared at all)? That's the main objective for me with horror. Did you get any chills?


	4. Running out of 'daylight'

Light Demon

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Dark Angel T_T Maybe someone will give it to me for Christmas?

Chapter 4 -Running out of 'daylight'

Alec was on road seven and still sprinting. His ears heard no sound in any direction. He had left his metal weapon a road down as he'd discovered that its rust was making him itch. Every now and then he would stop in the middle of the road and call out for Max but after a minute or two he would run again as the sound of something that was definitely not Max approached. Every time she didn't respond Alec lost more and more hope of ever finding her. What would he do if she was gone and he was all alone? The only sane person -or even the only human being- left.

Alec continued to sprint until he got to the end of road eight. His senses tingled as he got the feeling that Max had been there. Alec had learned to trust those odd feelings from experience. He carried on in the direction of the ninth road, slightly slower than before, listening intently. There was still no sound but Alec knew that Max was there. Dead or alive. Alec cringed to himself. Even if she was dead he wouldn't leave her body in this godforsaken town. Even if he had to carry her body out of there whilst running away from monsters -he would do it.

But there was still hope. Max was just as strong and fast as he was. Maybe she, like Alec, had escaped whatever that darkness was. The thought of Max being alone when that siren began to wail and everything turned insane was almost too much to handle. Alec carried on cautiously down the road. He noticed that the door to the school building on his left was open which was unusual. Hardly anything in the town was so pointedly noticeable. And on top of that everything was locked up or shut down. Alec neared the entrance slowly.

He stepped into the hallway of the school and immediately smelt Max. She was here or had been anyway. Her scent wasn't fresh but it wasn't old. As Alec carried on down the hallway the smell became stronger. The door right at the end of the hallway's hinges were destroyed and not long ago either. Alec had a decision to make. Left or right. He followed in the direction that Max's scent was in. He came to a door that looked like it led outside. He pushed it open to reveal a courtyard. Alec looked around and then froze. There, on the ground not twenty yards away, was Max lying face down. Alec's heart tightened and he swore it would have spontaneously combusted if he hadn't heard a strong heartbeat right then. He sighed and smiled for the first time in a while and rushed over to her side. He knelt down and pulled her over so that she was on her back.

Max's eyelids began to flutter as she was awoken; she tried to open them slowly to adjust to the bright light of the foggy courtyard. Her eyes couldn't focus and her head hurt. She tried to make sense of what was happening as she crushed her eyes closed again. Alec took hold of her shoulders as a worried expression painted his face. "Max." He said trying to get her to open her eyes again. Max groaned in an attempt to get the throbbing to stop. Alec noticed a deep gash on the side of her forehead.

He pulled her onto his lap and placed a hand behind her neck (which he noticed was bleeding on one side) to support her. Max was suddenly aware of the motion and her head cleared at the thought of danger as the previous day's memories came flooding back.

"_Maxie_." Alec whispered, shaking her slightly. Max's eyes shot open with clarity and she looked up at Alec. A huge smile spread across her face and she jolted upright to wrap her arms around him. "Alec!" She was so happy at the sight of him that she forgot about the no-personal-contact rule she kept around him. Alec returned the hug with the same severity. Max pulled away as thoughts of the darkness and the town came rushing back. "Was I dreaming?" She asked, mostly talking to herself than Alec. Alec's expression was serious as he shook his head gravely, breaking eye-contact with Max. She tried to get up but she wasn't at all steady enough yet. Alec pulled her up with him as he stood. He kept a hold on her right elbow as she steadied herself. Max looked around at the courtyard. The last thing she remembered was tripping and falling.

"Where were you Max?" Alec asked. "I woke up in the car and you were gone."

"I woke up on the side walk one road down from here. I thought you'd carried me away from the crash."

A chill ran up both transgenics spines. Max's fear had been confirmed.

"How'd you end up here?" Alec said looking around the school's courtyard with a frown.

Max dug into the pocket of her jeans. Her face fell with disappointment as she felt the edge of the note. That part hadn't even been a dream. She held it out for Alec to read.

"What's this?"

"I found the first one on the sidewalk next to where I woke up" Max's voice lowered slightly "I walked away for a minute and when I got back it was there." She said as Alec took it from her and read it. Max looked around her cautiously as the feeling of someone watching them alerted her. As Alec read the note with a deep line creasing his forehead, Max looked up at the third storey windows of the building. A figure caught her attention before it disappeared.

"Alec." Max got his attention.

"What is it?" Alec followed Max's gaze and folded the piece of paper again.

"I think I saw a little girl." Max wasn't sure. "Again."

Alec became worried. So Max had seen her too.

"So this led you here?" Alec held up the folded piece of paper. He knew that if he were the one to find it he would have come here too.

"Yeah. There's another." Max reached into her pocket hoping that she'd kept it. There was nothing. She checked the other hastily but came to the same conclusion. She'd dropped it. Max turned to see Alec's waiting expression. "I dropped it." Max's face paled at the memory of the girl's bathrooms.

"Doesn't matter, we gotta get back to the car, now." Alec said taking Max's wrist.

Max didn't budge. "What about the call and the message?"

"They don't matter Max. We have to leave this town." Alec tugged harder on Max's arm.

"I need to know why we were led here Alec." Max pulled her arm away.

Alec sighed hard. He knew there wasn't time to argue with Max about this. He held onto both of her arms and relayed the gravity of the situation with his eyes. "Listen to me. Logan's safe. Whatever we were brought here for doesn't matter, it was a trap and I don't think we should stick around to find out where, why, who and how."

"Whatever it is it's nothin' we can't handle." Max leveled.

"How do you plan on 'handling' it when you don't even know what 'it' is." Alec willed his logic to get through to Max.

"I don't know but I think this has something to do with Manticore. I mean think about it. What I've seen and what I know you've seen too doesn't seem real. What if some psy-ops creation is messin' with our heads. Makin' us see things.

"Then explain how I found you lying face down with a bloody gash on your forehead."

"I was running and I tripped." Max stated.

"Running from what exactly?" Alec saw the look of horror flash across Max's face. "A hallucination?"

"Yeah." Max said trying to convince herself as well as Alec. She knew it didn't seem believable but it was more believable than the alternative.

"Then explain to me how something I imagined could do this to me Max?" Alec turned around and lifted his shirt to show Max the various cut's in his back.

Max drew in a breath that was almost a gasp as she looked at the scratches and cuts. Some deeper and longer than other's. Max remained silent as Alec pulled his shirt down and turned to face her again. His eyebrows still raised awaiting her response.

Max swallowed. "_I don't know_."

"Please, let's just leave Max." Alec's eyes pleaded with her. Max nodded once.

As they walked back into the hallway Max recalled the previous night. When they got to the girls bathroom's Max stopped outside of the doorway. Alec stopped as well and looked at Max with a frown. "What?"

"Follow me." Max said walking slowly into the badly lit room.

Alec followed close behind. Max bent down and picked up the note from the floor and handed it to Alec. She let him read it before motioning him to follow her again.

As Max pushed the end stall door open she prayed that it wouldn't be there. That she really had been hallucinating it all. As the door swung open to reveal exactly the same thing she'd seen the day before she swallowed. "Do you see what I see?" She asked Alec solemnly.

"I think so." Alec stepped in front of Max to go further into the stall to get a better look. He saw the arrow pointing down towards the man's mouth. "Is this where you found the second message?"

"Yeah." Max turned to walk away.

"Wait, there's something else inside his mouth." Alec called after Max. He reached further and held his breath as the repulsive smell tried to filter through his lungs. He pulled the piece of paper out and backed away from the corpse as quickly as possible. Alec opened the piece of paper as Max stood next to him, reading at the same time as him.

_There is no escape._

Max and Alec remained staring at the note. "Alec?"

"Yes?"

"Can we make it back to the car before…" Max trailed off not knowing if nightfall was a suitable word for it.

"Escape and evade Maxie. We'll make it." With that they blurred as silently and as quickly as possible out of the building and back towards the car. As they ran beside each other Alec filled Max in on what he had seen so far and Max did the same.

"People?" Alec repeated.

"I'm pretty sure. I don't think they were friendly though. They tried to ram the door in to get to me. But they knew when the darkness was coming and they cleared outta there like bats outta hell."

"Maybe they were tryin' ta get you out of there?" Alec said giving Max a disapproving sideways glance.

"Maybe."

Alec and Max stopped suddenly when Alec's phone began to make a strange, static noise. Alec pulled it out from his pocket and looked at it with confusion.

"Your phone works?" Max almost shouted, half irked and half relieved.

"Shh!" Alec shushed Max, not wanting to draw any attention. "I forgot I had it alright."

As he looked at the flashing screen the static became louder. "I have no idea what's going on with this thing." Alec said shoving it back into his pocket. Max shot him a what-are-you-doing! look.

"There's no signal." Alec rolled his eyes at Max. But before either transgenic could carry on with their argument they heard something approaching fast. Max's eyes widened and she locked eyes with Alec for a split second before Alec grabbed her arm to pull her along with him. As they blurred the noise became fainter and then disappeared. Alec looked at their surrounding's. They would be coming to the scrap yard soon.

"Max, we're gonna go past those things I told you about soon."

"Got it." Max nodded and then sped up as Alec followed suit.

They passed the scrap yard without a second glance. After awhile they neared the area where the car was. The both slowed down as they saw the over-turned vehicle in the distance. The fog had lifted slightly, but only enough to just make out the outline of the car.

Max and Alec walked silently up to it to make sure nothing nasty was waiting for them there. Each transgenic circled the car from different directions. Max even knelt down to look into the smashed window. The car was empty. Max held onto the frame of the door and began to pull upwards as Alec went to her side and helped her push it back onto its wheels. Despite the cars weight they were able to push it over quickly. Max stepped back to examine how much of the car was damaged.

"I don't think it's gonna even run after all this." Max said shaking her head while frowning at Alec.

"Could you not be negative right now?" Alec shook his head back at her.

"Fine. I'm sure it'll work." Max said trying to make her smile believable.

Alec sat down in the driver's seat. The door on that side was just about falling off its hinges. The keys were still in the ignition. Alec turned them and the car stuttered to life before dying again. He revved the engine as he willed it to work. Max stood outside also willing the car to life. After a minute of revving the engine Max was getting worried as well as impatient. "Hang on." she said to Alec as she walked to the front of the car to pop the hood. As Max studied it Alec got out to look at it with her. After a minute they were done looking at the engine.

"Everything's fine." Max said, confused, shaking her head to herself.

"But we're not getting out of here by driving it." Alec said quietly. Max noticed the hopelessness creep into his voice.

"Give me your phone." Max held her hand out. Alec took it out of his pocket and gave it to her, then closed the hood and went to try the car again. Max dialed Logan's number noticing that there was only a bad signal reading. As it rang and after awhile went to voicemail Max hoped that Logan hadn't come looking her. "Hey. I don't know if this will even get through to you but Alec and I are safe for now. I really wish I knew why I was led here Logan. As much as I want to find out why someone set this trap and who they are, Alec's convinced me that we have to get outta here. We're going to try'ta leave but there's something strange goin' on. I won't lie; I'm scared and things don't look good. I don't know what I'd do if you were stuck here too so just this once, don't try to be a hero or somethin' and don't come looking for me. Please."

"Max!" Alec shouted from the car, practically jumping out.

Max turned around to see a figure running towards her at a speed similar to her own. Max had little time to react as she shoved the phone into her pocket. She couldn't risk loosing that too. In what split seconds remained Max and Alec examined the creature. It was human-like but it definitely wasn't a human. Perhaps it had been before? Its body brought to light the theme of rotting flesh and its twisted face mirrored those of the creatures that they had met before. Max braced herself for the impact of the creature but Alec had blurred in front of her suddenly, just in time to collide with it instead of her. Alec was knocked back, onto the hood of the car but regained an upright position quickly. He looked down to see the creature strangling Max on the ground. Max tried pry it's vice-like hand from her neck while she held away from her face the other. She wasn't making any progress loosening its strangle-hold so instead she elbowed it in the face making it weaken for a moment. Alec's timing was perfect as he kicked the creature off of Max with as much force as he had. He knew it would be back at it in a matter of seconds. As Max choked on the ground Alec helped her up and they both rushed to the car, looking for something to use as a weapon. The creature grabbed Alec's leg and pulled with excessive force making Alec fall face first, almost smashing his jaw-bone. It pulled Alec backwards, dragging him towards itself. Max grabbed Alec's arm and tried to pull him back. It was like tug of war and Alec was the rope. Alec kicked back, hopeful that he would break something on the creature's face. Maybe send his nasal bone into his brain? Alec didn't hear a satisfying crunch but the creature had let go of his leg. Alec flipped up onto his feet quickly. The creature had done the same. Max and Alec both shared a look before launching at the creature at the same time. Alec blurred behind it and held it's arms in a lock behind it's back so that Max was free to jump onto it, her knees positioned on it's chest, and twist it's head around 180 degrees. The creature's legs went limp. Max jumped down and Alec let the disgusting meat-sack fall to the ground. The transgenics stood on opposite sides of the creature and looked at it with slightly horrified expressions. Max coughed as she felt around her neck as Alec massaged the right side of his jaw which was sure to be turning purpley-blue already.

"Was it just me or did it seem really strong to you?"

"And fast too." Max added.

Alec looked up at the sky. It had started snowing Ash again. "We should get moving."

A/N: Tell me what you think…Maybe tell me what you'd like to see happen next?


End file.
